Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ingenious Little Cartoon on a Sunday…

Sunday, 23 November 2014 12:19

Written by Bobbi C.

4 Comments

Hey Everyone,

Another LifeRing participant passed this ingenious little cartoon depicting a poor little kiwi succumbing to addiction to me, so in turn I thought I’d pass it along to all of you. It feels fairly reminiscent of my experience with alcoholism, so if you have an extra 5 minutes to check it out, it’s definitely worth your time:

As those of us in the U.S. gear up for the holiday season onslaught (more about that next week), I hope you’re all having a peaceful and sober Sunday!

~~~

Keeper of the Month – November

Thursday, 20 November 2014 15:17

Written by Bobbi C.

2 Comments

Lifering’s e-mail groups are active, thriving communities of people who use them as strong sources of sobriety support, and many members often post remarkably written sources of inspiration, hope and encouragement that many other group members call “Keepers” – posts that they save for themselves so they can go back and look at them as often as they like.

We here at LifeRing like sharing these posts, with the authors’ permission, on our Blog so that everyone can enjoy them as much as our group members do.

This month’s Keeper is contributed by list member Scot S., who came to understand that recovery doesn’t ‘just happen’ to any of us:

I believe strongly that we each need to find our own path, that there is no magic that is going to work for everyone, and that what works for one person may not work for another. But I also believe that we can glean helpful ideas, motivation, support and inspiration from others, which is the essential purpose of the LSRSafe list as I understand it. That being said, there is one thing that I believe each and every successful person in the sobriety journey, or any journey, has in common:

And that is persistence. To never stop trying. To get up when you fail and start again. And then after some sober days, failure starts to turn into disappointment. And then more sober days, and then disappointment is replaced by a mistake, and then a mistake is replaced by a lesson, and then one day you start to reflect on why your drinking rather than the fact that your drinking. And you analyze why. And then you realize that rather than feeling sorry for yourself and saying why me, and getting down on yourself, that it is you yourself that is causing the problems and that you yourself are responsible for the state of your life and all the undesirable things that are happening to you. And then you accept that the one thing you can control, and the one thing that is the underlying root cause of most all your problems, is drinking. And then you realize that you no longer WANT to drink again, rather than thinking that you can’t, and you start to focus on all the positive elements of sobriety. And then you smile. And then you say to yourself – I get it. I’m done.

For me, this process has taken years. I first wrote this post roughly 1 ½ years ago, and promptly relapsed a month later, and it is only within the last couple months that I again found myself in the same mindset. So, clearly, I do not claim to have all the answers. Yet, as painful, frustrating, discouraging and hard as it has been, I never quit trying. And I kept building up sober days, even though there were not long stretches of time where I was totally sober. And because of that my depression started to leave, my clarity returned. My motivation and energy increased, and I let myself believe, truly believe, that I could do it and that I wanted to do it – to never drink again, no matter what. There were many other sub-components, such as the LSRSafe list, books (both on recovery and cognitive behavior), spiritual growth, exercise, friends and family, changes in lifestyle, my penny jar, meditation, self therapy, change in career, making my sobriety a priority, etc., but I credit my persistence and building those sober days as the number one factor for my success.

I am so incredibly thankful for my sobriety and all the wonderful things that come with sobriety. There are no benefits to drinking – it is all an illusion. Conversely, the benefits to sobriety are endless.

~~~

Loneliness vs aloneness

Wednesday, 05 November 2014 17:11

Written by Steve S

2 Comments

Especially early in sobriety, people may struggle with personal relationships.

Marriages or other long-term relationships may seem more fragile, whether due to raw emotions from early sobriety, or a relationship in which both partners had been drinking or using, and only one is now trying to quit.

While I don’t believe in a hard and fast rule, preached elsewhere, about making no major life changes in one’s first year of sobriety, there is some general value to the spirit of that as an idea.

So, that leaves dealing with loneliness, either from a relationship gone astray, or not having one.

Well, it means dealing with what is perceived as loneliness. And, that can include — and should include, as I see it — learning the difference between “loneliness” and “aloneness.”

We are all going to be alone at times in our life.

We’re also going to feel lonely at times in our life even when in the midst of a host of other people. Related to that, we may also feel alone, but yet not lonely, in the midst of one of those hordes.

Keeper of the Month – October

Tuesday, 28 October 2014 14:57

Written by Bobbi C.

2 Comments

Lifering’s e-mail groups are active, thriving communities of people who use them as strong sources of sobriety support, and many members often post remarkably written sources of inspiration, hope and encouragement that many other group members call “Keepers” – posts that they save for themselves so they can go back and look at them as often as they like.

We here at LifeRing like sharing these posts, with the authors’ permission, on our Blog so that everyone can enjoy them as much as our group members do.

This month’s Keeper is contributed by group member Chris E., who has found important new ways to cope with stress:

It’s the end of my work week, it was very challenging. Working in an ER environment there is consistent emergencies all day but this week several things went wrong, myself and my co-workers were really affected. Transitioning into the weekend has been a major point of relapse, there’s yelling, fighting police radios and blood at work and then I come home to quiet but my head is still full.

Meditation is a very helpful tool, followed by dogs, followed by food, a good book and a good sleep. Alcohol is a false promise, drinking after work just gets me drunk, screws up my sleep, gets me dehydrated, hung over and depressed. I’m going to continue to reinforce these facts so every Thursday I can look at this transition as something that I know exactly how to handle. There is nothing like going to bed sober and walking up without a hangover.

~~~

Check Out LifeRing On ONDCP Webinar!

Thursday, 23 October 2014 10:44

Written by Bobbi C.

2 Comments

LifeRing Board Member and Salt Lake City, UT meeting convenor Mahala Kephart recently participated in an ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) webinar entitled “Expanding Opportunities for Recovery: And Introduction to Three Secular, Abstinence-Based Mutual-Aid Pathways” on LifeRing’s behalf. In addition to Lifering, the webinar also includes representatives from SMART Recovery and Women for Sobriety, and the ONDCP recorded it for our viewing pleasure.

Please note the webinar’s total length is 1:34 (one hour and thirty-four minutes ) and begins with several minutes of ONDCP “housekeeping” business, then moves on to Mahala’s presentation at around 9:23.

Please click here to see the whole webinar on Vimeo, and many thanks to Mahala for representing LifeRing in a personal way while disseminating vital information about our organization on a national level. It’s wonderful to have been invited to the wider recovery conversation, and hopefully this is just the beginning for us!